The pivotal role that performance appraisal plays in managing human resources (Cardy and Dobbins, 1994), there has been a great deal of research conducted to understand appraisals. Murphy and Cleveland (1991) noted that much of research has focused on such issues as appraisal formats and minimizing bias from raters. One of the issues that they suggested that warrants further attention is the criteria by which appraisal systems are judged. They suggested that one such research area that needs to be addressed is the reactions of the ratees to the appraisal system. Murphy and Cleveland proposed that research should seek to understand how appraisal accuracy affects reactions to the appraisal. Cummings (1983) speculated on the effect that the performance appraisal process can have on employee trust for the organization. He hypothesized that the use of self-appraisal in the performance evaluation system should be positively associated with trust. Furthermore, Cummings (1983) proposed that if the results of appraisals are fed back to appraisees, trust will be enhanced.
Murphy and Cleveland (1991) suggested that the acceptability of the performance appraisal system to both raters and ratees is important to the system's effectiveness. They pointed out that acceptance by ratees "is a function of both the process and the outcomes of performance appraisal" (p. 252). The one avenue of assessing the impact of human resource system on trust or trustworthiness is to measure the impact of changing the system on the perceptual and attitudinal. The appraisal system that clarifies and increases the perceived linkage between performance and rewards might be expected to affect all three of the factors of trustworthiness.
When top management's decisions demonstrate strong competence to the employees, the perception of ability should be affected positively. When management demonstrates skill in understanding and resolving issues that are important to employees, an employee's perception of management's ability should be positively affected. One of significant roles of management in relation to employees is in defining and measuring performance. Performance appraisal system demonstrates to employees that top management has the important managerial skills needed to manage the organization's workforce, appraisal system that measures performance should make top management's capacity to have an impact salient, should enhance perception of HR manager skills. Research on performance appraisal has been preoccupied with measurement accuracy. What is the role of HR manager in appraisal driven firm?, so as to create performance appraisal system that is congruent with quality precepts.
For appraisal, HR manager provides employee development opportunities, employee assistance programs, gain sharing and profit-sharing strategies, organization development interventions, due process approaches to problem solving and regularly scheduled communication opportunities. The constant evaluation of the effectiveness of the organization results in the need for the HR professional to frequently champion change, ability to execute successful change strategies make the HR professional exceptionally valued. HR professional contributes to the organization by constantly assessing the effectiveness of the HR function. He also sponsors change in other departments and in work practices. To promote the overall success of his organization, he champions the identification of organization vision and action plans. The role of HR professional is changing, HR managers were viewed as the systematizing, policing arm of executive management, more aligned with personnel and administration functions that were viewed by the organization as paperwork. HR professional served executive agendas well frequently viewed as road block by much of the rest of the organization. HR manager must parallel the needs of his or her changing organization.
HR manager has responsibility for all of the functions that deal with the needs and activities of the organization's people including these areas of responsibility. Today, to guarantee their viability and ability to contribute, HR managers need to think of themselves as strategic partners. In this role, the HR person contributes to the development of and the accomplishment of the organization-wide business plan and objectives. HR representative is deeply knowledgeable about the design of work systems in which people succeed and contribute. This strategic partnership impacts HR services such as the design of work positions; hiring; reward, recognition and strategic pay; performance development and appraisal systems; career and succession planning and employee development. HR professional helps establish the organizational culture and climate in which people have the competency, concern and commitment to serve customers well.
In addition, performance appraisal has widened as concept and as a set of practices and in the form of performance management has become part of more strategic approach to integrating HR activities and business policies. Research on the subject has moved beyond limited confines of measurement issues and accuracy of performance ratings and has begun to focus on HR manager as one imperative factor to certain social and motivational aspects of the appraisal. The discussion of themes and trends that make up HR manager role and effectiveness, developing research agenda for the field in terms of the nature of appraisal and the context in which it operates. HR manager as one of the performance appraiser, allows interaction gaining and recognizing of multi-source feedbacks from employees. The context of HR manager based appraisal concentrates on people related differences and the impact of technology into the HR function. Research will seek to explore implications for appraisal practice, HR grounded and individual levels. Focusing attention on the HR activities, functions, and processes that enhance competency accumulation and exploitation, potentially enhances the understanding of strategic human resource management.
References
Cardy, R. L., & Dobbins, G. H. (1994). Performance appraisal: Alternative perspectives. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing
Cummings, L. L. (1983). Performance-evaluation systems in context of individual trust and commitment. In F. J. Landy, S. Zedrick, & J. Cleveland (Eds.), Performance measurement and theory (pp. 89-93). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Murphy, K. R., & Cleveland, J. N. (1991). Performance appraisal: An organizational perspective. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
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